Amazon is well-known as the world’s largest e-commerce company. It is widely seen as a great platform to sell products on, leading to a wide network of suppliers and smaller manufacturers offering their products through the site.

• Product Focus: Amazon doesn’t really have one focus for router parts, instead offering a huge range of different items (tools, consumables, service parts, etc.) at very competitive prices.
• Product Range: As mentioned, Amazon has a huge product range due to the scale of its operations, with tools, consumables, router kits, service parts, accessories, and materials all on offer in their various guises. Searching for “V-Bit Cutter” returned an option of 14 different brands to filter results from.
• Price: Searching for a “V-Bit Cutter” returns prices starting from $1.46 due to the number of different sellers incorporated within. Carbide-tipped V-bit cutters can be bought for under $20.
• User-Friendliness: The site is very simple to navigate and well-known among anyone who shops online due to the variety of products on offer.

CNCShop is an affiliated division of AXYZ, an industrial router and waterjet cutter manufacturer. CNCShop handles all of the after-sales services for AXYZ.

• Product Focus: The focus of CNCShop’s products seems to be tooling since they feature them the most prominently and offer a decent selection.
• Product Range: The product range is fairly standard, including plenty of options for tooling, service parts, and accessories.
• Price: V-bits start from $23.40, with replaceable blade inserts starting at $18.00.
• User-Friendliness: The site is easy to navigate, with product categories such as Service Parts, Consumables, and Tooling split into separate headers within a top toolbar, instantly accessible from the home page.

Looking closer at the site, parts on offer in the store include

• Tooling, including ball, drill, endmill, V-bit, engraving tools, and blade tools across seven different brands
• Service parts, including dust collection parts, bearings, fans, motors and operator consoles, amongst other items
• Accessories for routers, including safety solutions, dust collection, knife cutters, misters, spindles, and vacuums
• Consumables, including Texon (sacrificial diffuser sheet to enhance the vacuum hold down), Allen keys, lubricant, and swarf cone brushes.

Carbide 3D is a small engineering and product design company based in Torrance, California that manufactures CNC routers. Some of their desktop machines come in kit form, filling a gap in their product range between their 3D printers and larger-scale CNC machines.

• Product Focus: There is an all-in-one focus to the Carbide 3D site, with full routers and kit form machines available. Carbide 3D also provides the design software (Carbide Create) and the control software (Carbide Motion) for their routers, making their offering a true all-in-one solution for manufacture via CNC routing.
• Product Range: Their good range of items includes materials in addition to the typical items available in a router parts e-commerce store, such as cutters, service parts, and accessories.
• Price: The cost of the Nomad V-Bit Cutters is $60 for a pack of two.
• User-Friendliness: The site is slightly harder to navigate than others, with the focus being less on aftermarket parts and more on overall solutions. The store has a heading in the initial home bar which takes you to a separate webpage.

Their store contains the following machines:

• The Nomad 883 Pro: A fully-enclosed CNC desktop router able to cut wood, plastics, and soft metals.
• The Shapeoko 3: The most affordable and capable benchtop CNC router kit available. It comes in three sizes and is able to cut with many materials.

In terms of additional parts in Carbide 3D’s online store:

• Cutters: Ball, drill, endmill, vee, coated, and PCB cutters are all available in a variety of sizes
• Materials: “Synthetic Wood”, called “Renshape” for the Flip Jig (facilitates cutting of both sides of the part whilst maintaining perfect alignment); wax blocks for jewelry- and model-making, aluminum plate, acrylic, Delrin, and HDPE in differing depths and colors
• Accessories: Collets, maintenance kits, threaded tables, edge finders, vises, and jigs, among other items (for both Carbide 3D printers)

Ooznest is a Cambridge-based manufacturer with specialties in CNC machining and routing as well as in 3D printing. A key aim of theirs is to enhance the maker experience and offer home-based engineering to a wider range of people.

• Product Focus: A maker-friendly experience offers upgrade kits on various machines, as well as a blog on various machine builds and also product development on their own offering, the Ooznest OX Mechanical CNC Kit.
• Product Range: Products include cutting tools, including V-bit, endmill, drilling, and engravers, with representation of a few major brands (such as Amana and Makita). Available machines include the C-Beam (desktop) and the Workbee (workshop) with compact hand routers also available. Component bundles and consumables (including sheet materials) are also available.
• Price: Amana Tool V-bit cutters start at $31.25, which is slightly more expensive than CNCShop with their discount, but otherwise slightly cheaper than most providers.
• User-Friendliness: The website is straightforward, with drop-down menus for machines, parts, consumables, and tools as well as immediately obvious contact details and a series of positive reviews from Trustpilot (9.8 out of 10).

Cutter Shop was formed in 2006 with the sole purpose of selling CNC tools and accessories. They have a wide range of router cutters, collets, and accessories specifically tailored towards CNC routers. They are additionally the UK and European distributors for Vortex tools, specializing in solid carbide, replaceable tips, and custom tools.

• Product Focus: Cutter Shop focuses on material-specific tooling. The tools on offer are segmented between aluminum, wood, plastics, and other materials, such as composites, steel, and foam.
• Product Range: There is a wide range of tools within each of these material headings. For example, “wood” includes hardwood, softwood, laminated, chipboard, hard plywood, soft plywood, and MDF CNC router tools. The company also offers EnRoute Software, incorporating toolpath creation, 3D surface design, as well as unique construction and editing of contours.
• Price: Replacement inserts for the 7000 V-Groove cutters start at $33.45, excluding VAT. Complete tool replacement, however, is a bit on the expensive side, starting at $293.90.
• User-Friendliness: The site is simple enough to navigate, with tools split in the main drop-down toolbar by suitable material, along with menus for accessories, software, and information. It is also possible to go directly to a specific manufacturer and their tools, with six major brands on offer.

Titman started out in a backstreet shed in London and has grown into a worldwide brand, providing precision-made industrial tooling. From 1973 to the present day, they’ve supplied long-lasting and durable cutting tools, with 99% of all of the TCT tooling available made by Titman in Clacton, UK.

• Product Focus: There is a focus on USPs as well as on larger varieties of cutters, where special grades of carbide are used depending on cutter type, and cutters are specifically relieved for clearance. Specific “Tipcut” router cutters are on offer, aimed for use in small router machines.
• Product Range: Cutters are split nicely into type, with straights, rebate cutters, profile guide cutters, bevel and chamfer cutters, and T-slot cutters on offer, among others.
• Price: A “Perfect V-Grooving Single Flute” cutter can be purchased for $98.86, excluding VAT and any additional shipping.
• User-Friendliness: The site is simple to navigate.

With operations in 30 countries and an online presence in over 100 countries, eBay has a wide variety of goods and services available through their site.

• Product Focus: Similar to Amazon, eBay doesn’t really have one particular focus for router parts, instead offering a huge range of different items (tools, consumables, service parts, vintage parts and operator manuals) at very competitive prices.
• Product Range: eBay offers a massive range of products due to the scale of its operations, with tools, consumables, router kits, service parts, accessories, and materials. Due to the individual seller nature of eBay, searching for “V-Bit Cutter” didn’t return any brands, but there are refinements that can be made to your searches through the “More refinements…” section on the left-hand side.
• Price: V-bit tungsten steel cutters are available from $5.10 at a variety of different angles and shank lengths.
• User-Friendliness: The site is straightforward, with the search bar giving you easy access to all items associated to the search parameters. The site doesn’t facilitate associated product purchases as well as Amazon and others though, but that may suit many people not wanting to make impulse purchases.

Feature image source: midlandscnc.co.uk